At 4 p.m. last Friday, April 20, clusters of dedicated marijuana
users lit up to mark the anniversary of an annual “holiday” whose
origins are unclear. That most of them looked both grim and
determined was no accident. Marijuana growing and selling on a
commercial scale is under assault by law enforcement, especially in
California.
Although marijuana remains illegal under federal law, several
years ago, George Soros bankrolled a ballot initiative to make it
legal in California for people with medical recommendations from
physicians to have small amounts of marijuana to ease pain. This
gave rise to the creation of dispensaries who registered those with
“215” cards (the permission document) and then grew and sold them
the marijuana. In some cases dispensers and “patients” stuck to the
letter of the law; in others, it was a case of a wink and a nod.
Dispensaries proliferated (there were several hundred in Los
Angeles). Marijuana growing became a growth business, but doing it
for general sale remained illegal.
Those April 20th smokers may have been cheered by the recent
declaration of the conservative televangelist Pat Robertson that
the War on Drugs was a failure. He called for the legalization of
marijuana. The celebrants better not hold their collective breath
lest they turn blue.
In recent months the U.S. attorneys throughout California sent
stiff letters to county boards of supervisors and city councils
warning them that approval of new marijuana dispensaries risked
making them liable for federal law enforcement action. Pending
ordinances and applications were frozen.
Law enforcement ramped up. Humboldt County, on the state’s
northern coast, has been described by New Yorker writer
David Samuels as “the heartland of high-grade marijuana farming in
California.” This all-cash business pumps large amounts of money
into and through the local economy. Nevertheless, law enforcement
agencies took the federal letters seriously. Over the course of
three weeks, from late February through mid-March, the county’s one
daily newspaper carried 17 reports of busts. Six of these resulted
from home and property searches, yielding from 102 to 3,800 plants
and from 45 to 220 pounds of processed leaves. In several cases
there was hashish ready for sale and methamphetamine supplies.
Several searches yielded guns and five had cash, ranging from
$3,000 to $500,000. Two had stashes of counterfeit money. Two of
the raids included large “grows” in remote areas of this large
county where marijuana was being grown in hothouses and tended by
foreign workers.
A frequent problem in one city in Humboldt County is the rental
of houses in residential neighborhoods. The renters convert the
interiors into growing rooms. Grow lights are on 24 hours a day.
The scofflaws who rent these places often sign up for the
discounted electrical service program offered low-income citizens
by the public utility. Strong odors emanate from these houses, the
high cost of electricity is borne by the utility’s other customers,
and the buildings invariably are fire hazards. It is usually
complaining neighbors that lead to the police searches.
Routine traffic stops in the county often turn up packages of
marijuana, cocaine, and methamphetamine ready for sale in vehicles
driven by parolees.
One of the arguments for legalizing marijuana is that it would
eliminate the cost of law enforcement dedicated to enforcing
current laws. However, in Humboldt County, based upon a total
seizure of nearly $550,000 in three weeks, the law enforcement
effort seems to be paying for itself.
And the beat goes on. Just this week, the Sheriff’s Office in
two raids seized and destroyed 5,500 plants in a rural part of the
county and 1,600 in a “grow house” in a residential
community.
No wonder those “holiday” smokers always look glum.
Mr. Hannaford lives in northwestern
California.
